I added 5 peppered cory cats to my 90 gallon and within a week 3 had died. The smallest lasted another week or two and died, then the last one died about a month later. What would cause something like this? They seemed healthy but I would just find them laying upside down when I would check the tank in the afternoon after the lights turned on. The 90 gallon has been set up for over a year and the other fish are fine. It is the 90 gallon in my signature, which is planted pretty heavily, has 3 eheim canisters, and is understocked. I don't know the actual parameters of when the cories died, but everything is usually 0, even the nitrates. The ph is around 8.1 and the gh and kh are high as well (gh~9 kh~6-7)? The only other issue in the tank was BGA which had just started growing. I think there is BGA because there are no nitrates.
The peppered cories had been quarantined for 4 weeks in a 10 gallon tank and had shown no signs of sickness and seemed completely healthy. The 10 gallon tank had just been filled with water from the tap so it may have had lower levels of gh, kh, and ph. (Tap is PH 8.0-8.1 gh=7 kh=5)
The only reasons for the deaths that I can think of is maybe there was some shock from being moved, but there should not have been that much of a difference in the parameters. I saw them going to the surface to gulp air a few times, but no other fish showed and signs of stress or illness. The cory that lasted for a month seemed healthy and the only reason for its death that I can think of would be that it might have starved because whenever I fed it the cherry barbs and SAEs would also go after the sinking wafers. To combat this I would break the wafers into 4ths and drop about 5 in the back of the tank so the cory usually had a chance to get a piece of wafer to itself. I am not sure this worked though.
Has anyone experienced anything like this? I really like cories but don't want to risk getting them again if they will just die. I got peppered cories because hey will stay pretty small but they are also $5 each at the lfs. Is that a normal price? Is it worth trying them again? I am at a total loss as to what caused them to die. The most recent addition to the 90 gallon was 9 beckford pencilfish about 5 months ago. They have been fine except for one had a spinal problem and disappeared. I would blame the quality of the lfs, but the cories did survive quarantine. I had something very similar happen to some blue rams, but that was soon after the tank had been set up.
The peppered cories had been quarantined for 4 weeks in a 10 gallon tank and had shown no signs of sickness and seemed completely healthy. The 10 gallon tank had just been filled with water from the tap so it may have had lower levels of gh, kh, and ph. (Tap is PH 8.0-8.1 gh=7 kh=5)
The only reasons for the deaths that I can think of is maybe there was some shock from being moved, but there should not have been that much of a difference in the parameters. I saw them going to the surface to gulp air a few times, but no other fish showed and signs of stress or illness. The cory that lasted for a month seemed healthy and the only reason for its death that I can think of would be that it might have starved because whenever I fed it the cherry barbs and SAEs would also go after the sinking wafers. To combat this I would break the wafers into 4ths and drop about 5 in the back of the tank so the cory usually had a chance to get a piece of wafer to itself. I am not sure this worked though.
Has anyone experienced anything like this? I really like cories but don't want to risk getting them again if they will just die. I got peppered cories because hey will stay pretty small but they are also $5 each at the lfs. Is that a normal price? Is it worth trying them again? I am at a total loss as to what caused them to die. The most recent addition to the 90 gallon was 9 beckford pencilfish about 5 months ago. They have been fine except for one had a spinal problem and disappeared. I would blame the quality of the lfs, but the cories did survive quarantine. I had something very similar happen to some blue rams, but that was soon after the tank had been set up.
